TITLE:
Why Are Children Impatient? Evolutionary Selection of Preferences
AUTHORS:
Junji Kageyama
KEYWORDS:
Time Preference; Value of Survival; Life History Theory; Mortality; Parent-Offspring Conflict
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.3 No.5C,
September
24,
2013
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to explain why children are
impatient. Using a biological framework called the life history
theory, the study investigates the evolutionary root of time preference, paying particular
attention to childhood. The results show that the biologically endowed rate of
time preference is equal to the mortality rate not only in adulthood but also
in childhood, reflecting the change in the biological value of survival.
Mortality is the baseline for time preference through the entire course of
life. These results are consistent with the findings in previous empirical and
experimental studies that the discount rate is U-shaped in age, and account for
why young children, in particular, are impatient. In addition, the difference
in time preference between adults and children provides a biological
explanation for the parent-offspring conflict, in which the higher
discount rate among children causes parents and their children to disagree over
intertemporal allocation of resources in collective
decision-making particularly within the household.